I found out yesterday that the Best Buy near me (Pottstown, PA) is closing its doors on November 2nd and others in the region have closed or will be closing soon too. It's odd they aren't even going to try and make it through the Black Friday/Christmas shopping season?

Has anyone heard any news about them lately? Seems like they have been in financial trouble for some time now and they are starting to close stores in an effort to stay afloat?

Last time I was in one was over the summer and I did think it was a bit strange that the place seemed deserted and there were maybe 2-3 workers there that I could see.

I have a couple theories about this:

1. People got tired of their hard sell of worthless extended warranties and went elsewhere
2. Target, Costco and Walmart all sell decent TV's for less nowadays
3. People aren't buying music (CD's) like they used to and records and cassettes before that
4. People are holding on to smartphones much longer now and not rushing out every year or two to buy new ones

The elephant in the room? Online sales. There is no reason to drive there if I can have it brought to me for the same price or less.

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
The elephant in the room? Online sales. There is no reason to drive there if I can have it brought to me for the same price or less.

ooof. How did I forget that?

Amazon has got to be killing them.

A friend of mine joked that Best Buy is now just Amazon's showroom when I told him about ours closing next month.

Best Buy actually did a pretty good job embracing the "showroom" paradigm of brick and mortar retailers versus online.

They were in serious trouble several years ago. They were smart enough to know that they had people coming in to their stores to put hands on an item that they fully intended to get cheaper online. So they ran with it and did price matching as well as redoing the stores to encourage people to come in. They did some "store within a store" with Apple and other name brands to be a destination for people to touch and use the items. That gave Best Buy an opportunity to make the sale.

At the end of the day though they have to have well trained staff on the floor and lots of inventory to make it work- both of which are expensive.

Well maybe some of your theories may or may not be true but unlikely it is the reason for a closure.
Before my IT career I have spent many years in the Audio Video business.
I can tell you it is hard to maintain profitability and have seen many,many big time retailers go out of business.
I would imagine a major contributor is what has plagued most all brick/mortar store > the evolution of business as affected with online competition.
Additionally, technology business thrives most when it is in the early stages and and is rapidly changing.
I was around for the introduction of VCR's, DVD's, FAX Machines, I was an early Nintendo distributor.
In the early pipe-line stage > the growth and business was amazing.
We bought fax machines by the truckload, Nintendo cartridges as many as we could get with orders for tens of thousands and sold just as fast.
Once the business matures it gets tough.
There may be other factors affecting Best Buy but you have to control your inventory or you will get killed.
Technology business has changed, so has the business model.
It's tough, wish them well but not totally unexpected.
FWIW, they are just as competitive as any other dealer including Walmart, Costco whatever.
Selling for LESS is not a virtue - making a PROFIT is.
YMMV

Best Buy closes stores all the time. And opens new ones. I used to be on the team that built and remodelled the stores.

Amazon isn't that big a factor. BB actually meets or beats their prices regularly, and is now offering next day delivery on most items.

I know that at least one of the PA closings is due to an expired lease (Pottstown). They often aren't renegotiated if better terms can't be reached. As the market changes, the floor space needed has changed. When physical media like tapes, DVD's and CD's were a big seller, we built 45 to 50K square foot stores. Now the biggest are usually 30K. No point paying for square footage that's not needed.

Unlike other electronics retailers that no longer exist, BB acually works with companies to develop new products based on consumer feedback.

Only been in there a few times and had some of the worst customer experiences of my life.

quote:

Originally posted by zoom6zoom:
Best Buy closes stores all the time. And opens new ones. I used to be on the team that built and remodelled the stores.

Good point.
Smart organizations will close bad or under performing locations.
Doesn't mean anything when they close except it doesn't meet their profitability criteria.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:

Amazon has got to be killing them.

Jeff should buy the chain and turn it into an Amazon showroom / pickup / return joint.

One near me just did some remodeling or at least they changed the entrance and facade. Haven't been inside in years.

I know I used to have 3 BB locations near me now it is just 1 and when you go into that location it is usually a ghost town....

The mobile phone and computer sections seem to have some people in them but the appliance and AV seem to be dead.

I always heard people shop at BB, see the model they like and buy it online for less.
Their return policy is the absolute worse!

My local store could close and I would not miss a thing.

I should have learned years ago not to bother trying to go there but I still do. Each time I try to spend there I leave in frustration and go elsewhere. Last two years it has cost them a sale on a TV and a car audio system. The TV sale due to the inability of anybody to actually walk over and ask if there was anything I needed, the car audio system due to the lack of knowledge and incorrect answers to my questions. The best being "Where is the Sirius module on the estimate?" To which he replied "It's built into the Pioneer unit." despite the display card stating otherwise and from my personal knowledge as earlier in that same week I priced the same unit from Crutchfield and the information they gave me also was contrary to what BB's expert said.

The few BB stores I have been in were depressing as hell. Same ambiance as Sears stores, as that company circled the drain.

Those around me seem to do ok. Plenty of customers. Nice 0% financing options. I prefer they leave me be in store. I do miss their weekly ad.

Not all stores are the same.

A newer BB in Frisco, TX has nearly every Nikon, Sony, Canon, Panasonic, and Fuji camera on display, for example. Prices are the same on Amazon and elsewhere - controlled by the manufacturers I imagine. Quite a few lenses as well.

They had 7 or 8 video Alarm systems on display too.

I didn’t get much further than those two areas but overall it was a candy store for that kind of stuff.

Plus 18 month 0% financing.

It’s in a high end area so they have that going for them. Lots of people that can afford a $2000+ digital camera.

Best Buy is a publicly traded company. It should be easy enough to see if their revwnues and profitability have been falling.

It’s been 10 months since I was in Washington, but the two BB stores there were thriving. Everytime I walked into one there was a line of suckers forking over $$$ at the cell phone department.
They still sold DVDs in the bulk bin for a couple bucks a piece, by the hundreds.
Car audio? Yeah, many people who don’t know how to wire something, and can buy it and have it installed, go there. My best friend in Washington had his wife’s truck upgraded without even asking me if I would have wired up an amp and speakers. I was insulted. lol.

BB will preserver for a few more years. People of the old age like brick and mortar. I give them six/seven years. They will be defunct by 2026.

Too bad this thread will be pruned by then.

It looks to me like they are downsizing by perhaps closing poor performing stores. Store count is down about 500 over the last 5 years to ~1,200 world wide.

Net Income looks on track for 2019 to be a record year at ~1.5 Billion.

No link, behind pay wall.

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:
It looks to me like they are downsizing by perhaps closing poor performing stores. Store count is down about 500 over the last 5 years to ~1,200 world wide.

Net Income looks on track for 2019 to be a record year at ~1.5 Billion.

No link, behind pay wall.

Sounds like they're doing just fine financially. They built a new store by me a couple of years ago that's 3x the size of the old store.